Post by Administrator on Mar 28, 2022 8:29:10 GMT
VIA: Royal British Legion - Paris France
28 March 2021
Have you remembered to put your clocks forward this morning? Did you know that during the Second World War, in 1941 Britain adopted British Double Summer Time, which saw clocks being put forward two hours ahead of GMT. In order to better align British industry with the country’s wartime needs, the Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, initiated a gradual shift of the clocks. The idea was that when British Summer Time ended in 1940, the clocks were not moved back an hour and remained on UTC+1. The following year, in the spring, the clocks still moved forward for Summer Time, establishing UTC+2.
The basic premise was for the UK to gain an extra two hours of daylight. The UK’s leadership believed that this move would increase the essential industrial production of war equipment. It also allowed for longer days with the purpose of saving fuel for lighting and people also got sufficient time to get home during the Blitz before the blackout began. The annual UK production of aircraft went up from 16,000 units in 1940 to 31,000 at peak production in 1943. However, the assembly of planes had already doubled from 1939 to 1940 before the introduction of Double Summer Time. Double Summer Time was eventually discontinued in 1947 when the old system was reintroduced.
28 March 2021
Have you remembered to put your clocks forward this morning? Did you know that during the Second World War, in 1941 Britain adopted British Double Summer Time, which saw clocks being put forward two hours ahead of GMT. In order to better align British industry with the country’s wartime needs, the Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, initiated a gradual shift of the clocks. The idea was that when British Summer Time ended in 1940, the clocks were not moved back an hour and remained on UTC+1. The following year, in the spring, the clocks still moved forward for Summer Time, establishing UTC+2.
The basic premise was for the UK to gain an extra two hours of daylight. The UK’s leadership believed that this move would increase the essential industrial production of war equipment. It also allowed for longer days with the purpose of saving fuel for lighting and people also got sufficient time to get home during the Blitz before the blackout began. The annual UK production of aircraft went up from 16,000 units in 1940 to 31,000 at peak production in 1943. However, the assembly of planes had already doubled from 1939 to 1940 before the introduction of Double Summer Time. Double Summer Time was eventually discontinued in 1947 when the old system was reintroduced.